Do you find yourself struggling with paying attention?  What about the ability or inability in controlling impulsive behaviors? Do you have trouble your ability to concentrate or remain focused, even in things you have interest and a passion for? Or when a parent whose child is full of zest of energy and is far more active than kids their age.  

The likes of National Health Service out the UK, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, along with the likes of established healthcare providers across the world, recognize Attention Deficient Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders rooted from childhood that many people find creep into their personal and professional lives as they grow into adulthood.  The key here is understanding that the most common symptom is centered around hyperactive-impulsive.  We’ve all acted without thinking about what the ramifications might be having not taking into account the possible outcomes, and this is what makes ADHD so common as it’s so relatable.  

Does this mean that you are impulsive, active, forgetful, distracted, or fidgeting mean you have ADHD? No.  Not at all actually.  It could simply mean you have some of traits and that we as humans are wired to act and react in certain ways.  The difference between understanding if you struggle with ADHD is whether it affects parts of your lives that would seemingly be considered easier to other.  There are many people who live chaotic lives displaying some of these symptoms, but in reality, its just the way they operate.  

There are others that display the same symptoms and really struggle.  Often times, it is considered embarrassing in adulthood to not be able to remember daily tasks and activities, but we’re here to tell you it’s ok.  According to a recent study, 4.4% of the US population are battling bouts of ADHD.  An estimated 6.1 million (9.4%) American children aged 2-17 years old had ever received a diagnosis of ADHD. The worldwide prevalence of adult ADHD is estimated at 2.5%, and out of 7.8 billion people, there’s 156,000,000 people who are just like you.  You’re not alone. If you feel you’re struggling with any of the following, know you’re not alone.  Ask yourself if any of the following resonate:

• Interrupt or intrude on others' activities or conversations

• Have a short attention span 

• Being easily distracted

• Appearing forgetful or losing things

• Have trouble playing or doing an activity quietly

• Being unable to stick to tasks that are tedious or time-consuming

• Difficultly in following instructions (task orientation)

• Constantly changing activity or task

• Having difficulty organizing tasks

• Fidget or squirming

• Have difficulty staying seated in the classroom or in other situations

• Constantly interrupting 

We are Warrior Heart Therapy promote finding balance when you might believe ADHD will keep you unbalanced.  We leverage such methods as Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) as a way to help you manage your ADHD as we teach individuals how to express their thoughts and feelings without being disruptive to others. We work to calm the mind, compartmentalize thoughts, and ease negative feelings in a rational way. 

When we think about anxiety, we tend to generalize anxiety as a singular experience. We tend to generalize anxiety as a feeling that is common from person to person.  As we at Warrior Heart Therapy learned from our education and seeing anxiety in the real world, anxiety is nothing a generalized concept as it has many different faces.  

First, there are generalized anxiety disorders usually involves a persistent feeling of anxiety or dread, which can interfere with daily life.  These are often experienced through feelings of being on-edge, feeling fatigued, unable to concentrate, being irritable, unexplained pains, being constantly worried, or having trouble sleeping.  Ok, so maybe there are common anxiety’s that people suffer but there are still many faces.  

As we dig into anxieties, we find that anxiety disorders are not limited to what’s in the name (anxiety).  Anxiety disorders extend into panic disorder, generally through of through panic attacks, where people suffer from sudden periods of intense fear, discomfort, or sense of losing control even when there is no clear danger or trigger through a racing heart, sweating, trembling, heavy chest (chest pains), or feeling loss of control.  Another is social anxiety disorders, where people experience an intense, persistent fear of being watched and judged by other they know and don’t know.  This type of disorder often finds people have a fear of social situations that become so intense that it seems beyond their control.  Then we get into phobias, where people have an intense, irrational feeling of aversion. Although it can be realistic to be anxious in some circumstances, the fear people with phobias feel is out of proportion to the actual danger caused by a situation. Phobias are a special breed of anxiety disorders as there are: 

• social phobias - intense fear of or anxiety towards social or performance situations where feel they are constantly being judged resulting in living in a state of embarrassment 

• agoraphobia – people avoid situations using public transportation, being in open or enclosed spaces, being in a crowd, or leaving home

• separation anxiety disorder – people having fears about being separated from people to whom they are attached

• selective mutism - when people fail to speak in specific social situations despite having normal language skills

We at Warrior Heart Therapy know that just as anxiety disorders are not generalized, our treatment methodologies are also not generalized.  As your trusted counselors, help to identify and choose the best treatment for you.  We tackle anxieties through approaches including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to help you manage your stress.  

Just like therapies, we also understand that talking to us may not be enough.  We will help tackle your anxiety’s but understand that alternatives to our therapies can help tackle more intense bouts of anxiety.  While natural stress management options can be explored through exercise or meditation, medications such as anti-depressants or anti-anxiety medications exist and are found to be beneficial.  We aren’t medical doctors, but we can help navigate the waters to determine what type of treatment is best suited for you. Everybody needs help sometimes, and we at Warrior Heart Therapy are here to do just that. 

Give or take, take of give – that is question.  Which one are you?  Are you able to recognize it.  Does the feeling overtake your daily rational thoughts in whether or not you can function? Do you have a feeling that you are walking on eggshells not to say or do the wrong thing? What about seeking permission to do anything you want to do? You ever find yourself apologizing even if you’ve don’t nothing wrong? How about needing the approval of others when they have nothing to do with decisions in your life?  What about apologizing for feeling sorry for another person when that other person has inflicted negativity towards or hurt on you? What about putting on the superhero cape and feeling like you always have to solve and fix problems that are outside your own? What about feeling like you don’t know who you are when you look at yourself in the mirror every day?

Sounds impartially imbalanced, right?  We agree!

Feeling a sense of imbalance is part of our day to day lives.  Feeling like your reliant on something or someone is not an imbalance, but an intrusion of you being the best version of yourself.  The American Psychological Association (APA) defines codependency as "the state of being mutually reliant" and "a dysfunctional relationship pattern in which an individual is psychologically dependent on (or controlled by) a person who has a pathological condition such as being an alcoholic or addicted to gambling”.

Codependency in a relationship is when each person involved is mentally, emotionally, physically, and/or spiritually reliant on the other. It is an emotional and behavioral condition that affects an individual's ability to have a healthy, mutually satisfying relationship. It is also known as “relationship addiction” because people with codependency often form or maintain relationships that are one-sided, emotionally destructive and/or abusive.

Codependency is an unhealthy way of living and a crux to your life.  Codependency often has you funneling your energy into supporting the people in your life without making space for or making considerations towards what you need for yourself. We are Warrior Heart Therapy help you break free of identifying towards others and identify to the self.  We seek to help you understand the difference between dependency and codependency.  We help point out that some levels of dependency are healthy as it challenging to make it through life alone.  Seeking companionship is very healthy as people thrive with that level of support.  Key word – support – when people don’t just focus on their needs or draw values from self-sacrifice but find themselves available to support others when they are needed. 

We are Warrior Heart Therapy are enablers of the self, but we are ourselves won’t become a source of your codependency.  We work diligently to ensure that if someone suffers from codependency, we are able to help them break free of those circumstances without shifting that codependency to us as your counselors.  We will guide you away from being codependent on anything besides yourself. We work to giving you control of your own decisions, free of seeking any input from anyone else.  Building trust and faith in you as individual will not come without setbacks and error, but through this process, you will learn to depend on your decisions and be accepting of any outcomes, free of judgement or biases.  We will help you set boundaries as your practice self-awareness and self-love as you bring balance back into your relationships and overall lives. 

Let’s paint a picture. You have a restless night of sleep tossing and turning. Random thoughts running through your head, constant worrying about what you have to do tomorrow. You often get up throughout the night, pacing, and looking up things online. You brain can’t shut off and you feel slow and lethargic. You feel like things not going right in your life are your fault, that nothing good ever or will happen to you. You fight with demons about your worthiness. You recognize only the bad things in your life, losing focus on what’s good. You believe that no progress is being made as things feel like they will never change. You are feeling sick and run down. You feel like the walls are constantly closing in.  You feel like life keeps hitting you and you’ll never catch a break. You go about the night not feeling your best. All this occurs before the sun comes up. These days start to stack up, one after another, after another. Pretty soon, before you know it, you’re in a funk. You feel a heaviness in your chest. You feel stuck in a welll lined with muddy walls making it difficult to climb as you continue to slide down get further entrenched. 

If you feel like this, then unfortunately you may be engrossed in a world of depression. Depression is a medical condition that affects your mood and ability to function. Depression can be brought on by a sudden change or traumatic event. Maybe you experienced a bad break-up of divorce. Maybe you’re suffering from having experienced the death of a loved one. Maybe you’ve worked at a job for two decades and you lost your job to unforeseen circumstances. Maybe you’re suffering from self-identity. Maybe you grew up with overbearing parents who demanded too much out of you and you’re having a hard time living up to their expectations. Maybe you are successful but miserable at the imbalance in your life. Mayne you had success and financial comforts, but unforeseen circumstances now find you financially struggling. Maybe as you realize this you know someone who is experiencing one of these symptomatic examples and realize we’re all human who have suffered from a bout of depression from time to time. 

You see, depression affects 7 out of 100 adults any given year. One in six people (16.6%) experience depression at some time in their life, though we believe that number to be lower than actual numbers that should be reported. Women are more likely than men to experience depression. Some studies show that one-third of women will experience a major depressive episode in their lifetime. People with major depression experience symptoms constantly. As seen in many mental health conditions, depression has very little to do with what’s happening around you and more to do with what’s happening within you. 

We at Warrior Heart Therapy want to help you eradicate your thoughts of depression. Truth is you’re not a failure – far from it. The negativity in your life could be sourced from constant circumstantial subjectivity of your surroundings or upbringings.  You’ve suppressed success because you don’t feel you’re worth enough.  Now while this all sounds like the script from Good Will Hunting and we’re about to you “it’s not your fault”, you’re right – it’s not your fault.  Depression is by design irrational and frustrating. If you’ve felt depressed for a long time, then you’ve come to the right place. You have found the right people. 

Why? Because we are Warrior Heart Therapy are just like you and have battled depression. As humans, we will always continue to battle it as life throws its curveballs at us. The difference is now you have a support system through Warrior Heart Therapy’s team who’s stood in your shoes, walked down your path, and continues to persevere.  Let us help show you how. 

My family is perfect … said no one. Even in the healthiest and most loving of families, every family has its challenges. No family is perfect, but for people whose family life has never outright been truly bad, it can be difficult to spot family issues when they arise. Families are much more than groups of people who share the same genes or the same address. rom little irritations to buried resentments, from dramatic arguments to feelings of guilt, disappointment, and anger we did not even know we had, our families often bring up the most intense emotions we experience, for better or worse. Family problems are much more than abuse or addiction as they tend to include a host of different things varying from challenging personalities, trust issues, fighting, conditional love, parenting styles, money, appearance, distance, arguing, and more. 

Family can be among the most difficult of relationships to navigate. The reason is because its really difficult to cut off family, especially if they are your blood. There is an inherit responsibilities we all feel as come from the same place and share the same blood (in most cases). Families are not like co-workers, as they come and go. Throughout your lifetime, you will have an endless abundance of co-workers and friends who will come in and out of your life.  Families are different.  You have one biological father and one biological mother.  You have a finite number of brothers and sisters in your life. Even if you’re at your wits end with family, it’s a feeling that can more often than not be set aside in the name of – well - family. 

Family problems are different for everyone, and people vary widely in their emotional and psychological responses to these issues. However, some especially common forms of family issues include:

• Physical Violence

• Parent / Child conflict

• Parent / Parent conflict 

• Issues with siblings

• Mental belittlement 

• Cultural conflict

• Religious pressure

• Lifestyle management 

• Caregiver stress

• Communication issues

• Mental and physical abuse

• Gaslighting

• Abandonment

At Warrior Heart Therapy, we help you seek out the ideas in your family dynamics to make the most out of your family’s DNA. In an ideal world, our families are those to whom we should be able to always come to for support and comfort. They are whom we should be able to look and draw strength and feedback from, good and bad, whom we feel love from and for, carry a constant concern, and with whom we feel close and comfortable, openly sharing thoughts and feelings. We understand that family problems range from mild to extreme. The ranges result in behavioral and mental health issues within the family dynamic. At Warrior Heart Therapy, we specialize in the specifics that focus on shaping fractured family dynamics into functional ones. 

As the saying goes, we are who we keep our company with. Our relationships with those around us are influential to our identity. How we come to understand those relationships have a hand in developing our belief systems. And sometimes we struggle because of how those things have shaped us.  Interpersonal relationships can be challenging. You see, everyone will experience conflict or misunderstandings in communication. Sometimes you will find you are continually at odds with others for unknown reasons.  friendships and relationships can find themselves strained and almost at a breaking point. 

At Warrior Heart Therapy, we realize that you may need help in understanding what is going on.  We understand that interpersonal relationships may find you becoming angry more easily. You may become frustrated as you struggle to find a way to communicate. You may feel inclined to withdrawal from social activities, not feeling inclined to be with friends, family, colleagues or loved ones. You may feel as though you are not good enough. You may feel alienated from others and vastly different, unable to resonate with many if any at all. You may struggle to express yourself, both verbally and non-verbally. You may also feel isolated, detached with voids in your life that go unfulfilled. 

These are all rooted from disagreements of opinions and perspectives based on two or more personalities trying to get along.  It’s why their called interpersonal (between two or more) as not to be confused with intrapersonal (between your two ears). Interpersonal relationship issues are normal, common occurrence in relationships. Anytime more than one person is involved, there are going to be different values, opinions, and thoughts. These differences are what make people individuals. The differences are what make people unique.  Often, these differences are taken negatively because they’re not viewed in the proper context as they are intended.  Often when two people are having interpersonal relationship issues, we hear “you’re just not getting it”.  

Sound familiar, right?

Well, at Warrior Heart Therapy, we’re here to get it and here to hear you.  The both of you. There are multiple ways individuals can deal with interpersonal relationships issues.  Where conflict arises are when people either avoid the issues or compete with the other, often both resulting in heightened aggressiveness and aggravation.  At Warrior Heart Therapy, we prescribe to being accommodating and compromising, which are ultimately gateways to individuals coming together to collaborate.  We help you create interpersonal resilience by truly engaging in an interpersonal relationship. 

A flashback is when memories of a past trauma feel as if they are taking place in the current moment. A flashback is a vivid experience in which you relive some aspects of a traumatic event or feel as if it is happening right now. This can sometimes be like watching a video of what happened, but flashbacks do not necessarily involve seeing images, or reliving events from start to finish.  Unfortunately, flashbacks can be intense.  During a flashback, people may experience a strong sensation tied to a complete or partial image of a traumatic incident. Hearing sounds or being triggered by words or phrases associated with the event tend to create physical sensations that are often quite painful and debilitating. 

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that's triggered by a terrifying event — either experiencing it or witnessing it. Symptoms may include flashbacks, nightmares, and severe anxiety, as well as uncontrollable thoughts about the event.

We at least bring to you somewhat positive news.  It's normal to feel afraid during and after a traumatic situation.  It doesn’t make tackling PTSD easy but know there’s at least nothing wrong with you if you happen to feel this way.  We at Warrior Heart Therapy know that anyone can develop PTSD following a traumatic event, but people are at far greater risk if they can’t look back and understand where the PTSD might stem from.  Some common areas where PTSD often roots from include:

• an event resulting from physical abuse

• an event resulting from sexual assault

• heightened experiences resulting in intense helplessness

• the event involved something they never thought would happen to them

• traumatic accidents 

• criminal events

• natural disasters 

We at Warrior Heart Therapy focus on trauma-based treatments through our therapeutic engagement methods to reduce PTSD symptoms, lessen anxiety and depression, and improve a person’s quality of life.  We work at being effective for people who have experienced prolonged or repeated traumatic events. In an effort to getting individuals back to living their normal lives, we introduce concepts gradually to ensure we do not reintroduce or trigger our client community.  By helping individual understand and create helpful beliefs, we teach individuals how to relax and manage anxiety.  

PSTD can be a nightmare to live with because of the nightmares it causes to everyday individuals like you.  It doesn’t need to be debilitating though.  Whether it’s through the use of CBT or Psychotherapy, Warrior Heart Therapy will use its tools and services to help you navigate to a better you.  We will help restructure your thoughts and perspectives so that individuals learn how to think about things in a new way, hoping that we help you think about things through a new you. 

We hear about OCD a lot even though it affects “only” 1.2% of U.S. adults each year. Let’s put that into context.  The US Census Bureau identified adults in the US as those who are 18 years or older.  As of 201, that number stood at 209 million people, of 74.3% of the total US population. When you take that into context, that is roughly 2.4 million adults who suffer from OCD.  

At its core, obsessive compulsive disorder  (OCD) is an anxiety disorder.  Symptoms typically can be recognized early in one’s childhood but are often more prevalent during one’s teenage years through their young adulthood. Having OCD is intrusive. Many people with OCD recognize that their obsessions and compulsions are not rational, but they feel a strong need to perform the repetitive behavior or mental compulsions. They may spend several hours every day focusing on their obsessions, performing seemingly senseless rituals.

OCD features a pattern of unwanted thoughts and fears (obsessions) that lead you to do repetitive behaviors (compulsions). These fears and thoughts are referred to as one’s obsession, based on compulsive behavior of feeling a rise in need of having to do something.  Truth be told, OCD makes things hard.  OCD can make common things things such performing at work, concentrating in school, or being present in a relationship difficult to manage. These obsessions and compulsions interfere with daily activities and cause significant distress. It’s a constant urge, but unhealthy in nature because it cannot be controlled. 

Frequent disturbing thoughts or images are called obsessions. They are irrational and can cause great anxiety. Reasoning doesn’t help control the thoughts. Rituals or compulsions are actions that help stop or ease the obsessive thoughts. Common obsessions include concerns about contamination, cleanliness, aggressive impulses, or the need for symmetry. Common compulsions include checking, washing/cleaning, and arranging. There isn’t always a logical connection between obsessions and compulsions. Often people with OCD experiences a variety of obsessions and compulsions.   

At Warrior Heart Therapy, we leverage multiple methods to help you tackle OCD from using treatments including psychotherapy, Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), Exposure Response Therapy (ERT). If left untreated, OCD can be chronic and can interfere with an individual’s normal activities. We believe that with proper treatment and focused attention, our Warrior Heart family can help those who are suffering from OCD regain control over this debilitating anxiety and begin to feel relief from its symptoms. We can help individual break the cycles in which OCD controls their lives. 

Habits can be healthy.  Compulsions can be confounding. We’re here to help you harness your healthy. 

Tell us if you been been on the giving or the receiving end of the following and not knowing whether it’s just an observation or a problem: Wow, what a feisty kid!  

We know that all children are oppositional from time to time, getting irritable and making you as an adult irritated.  This is particularly true when a child is tired, hungry, stressed, or upset.  At some point or another, a child may become argumentative, talkatively defiant, or becomes disobedient. As parents, we all experienced the terrible two’s as it so commonly referred to.  Oppositional behavior is a normal part of development for young children and early adolescents, but it does stay into a grey area should the behavior continue for an elongated amount of time. When children become openly uncooperative and hostile, the behavior ceases be viewed as developmental and grows into a serious concern when it becomes a frequent and consistent behavior, turning into a trait.  The concern becomes a worry in that it stands out when compared with other children of the same age and developmental level.  It becomes a major concern as the child begins to socially interact it being seep into other faucets of the development affecting things such as the child's friendships, family, and academic lives.

Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) is a behavioral disorder. It is mostly diagnosed in childhood as children with ODD show signs of being uncooperative, defiant, and hostile toward peers, parents, teachers, and other authority figures. They are more troubling to others than they are to themselves.

We at Warrior Heart Therapy are parents too.  Our founder is a mother two young children and understands firsthand the challenges of parenthood.  As a parent, we understand that it’s a two way street in learning how to cope and manage oppositional defiance.  Truth is, Oppositional Defiant Disorder doesn’t just shape and define a child’s development and future, but also parent’s development and ability to cope.  We at Warrior Heart Therapy take adolescent development very seriously by focusing on several forms of therapy based approaches including 

• Individual Psychotherapy as a means to develop more effective anger management approaches for each child

• Cognitive Problem-Solving Skills to increase awareness and confidence while decreasing negativity in the self

• Social Skills to increase approachability and understanding towards others 

We also specialize in psychotherapy group collaboration to improve communication and mutual understanding within the family dynamics. We also specialize in psychotherapy group collaboration to improve communication and mutual understanding within the family dynamics.

 We believe that positive parents produce positive perspectives towards a child’s life. We always build on adding to the positives contributions which promotes praise and positive reinforcement with children. 

Hey ladies… Do you ever feel that you’re failing at everything?  Failing at being a wife?  Failing at being a mom?  Failing at being a professional?  Failing at being a sibling?  Failing at keeping up with your health? Failing at keeping up with your appearance? Don’t worry, you’re not alone.  You might be suffering from PMDD.  What is PMDD?  Let’s learn together!

PMDD stands for Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder.  Leading medical agencies around the world agree that PMDD is a severe and often disabling extension of its sister premenstrual syndrome (PMS), but often more evil.  If PMDD and PMS were a cartoon movie, PMDD would be the character that makes the main antagonist look cute. PMDD would be the evil stepsister on steroids. Although PMS and PMDD both have physical and emotional symptoms, PMDD causes extreme mood shifts that can disrupt daily life and damage relationships. 

Don’t mistake PMDD for PMS.  They are same as it relates to cyclical and the physical attributes it affects in women, but PMDD is different.  PMDD causes emotional and physical symptoms like PMS, but women who are diagnosed with PMDD find their symptoms difficult and draining.  Most PMDD symptoms could interfere with a woman’s daily life often extending from with confines of a woman’s 4 walls at home into a woman’s work, school, social life, and often relationships. 

In both PMDD and PMS, symptoms usually begin seven to 10 days before a period starts and continues for the first few days in a period cycle.  Both PMDD and PMS may lead to bloating, irritability, breast tenderness, fatigue, sleepiness, and changes in sleep and eating habits. In PMDD, there’s at least one emotional and behavioral symptom that stands often experienced through anxiety, sadness, tension, hopelessness, intensity, irritability, anger, or extreme mood swings.

The cause of PMDD isn't clear. Underlying depression and anxiety are common in both PMS and PMDD, so it's possible that the hormonal changes that trigger a menstrual period worsen the symptoms of mood disorders.

As a woman owned business, we truly understand what woman going through as we are just like you and immune to PMS or its evil stepsister PMDD.  We can help you navigate the mental hurdles while pointing you the right direction through physical.  Unlike an evil stepsister, we at Warrior Heart Therapy are here to help you, not hinder you.